welcome baby miles

I'm officially an aunt! Miles was born today at 2:04 am. He was 8 lb 3 oz and 19 inches long. I would say it's time to start spoiling this kid rotten...but I already started that the second I found out Rebecca was preggers. I could be a little biased, but I think he is pretty stinking cute! When I called Rebecca earlier today I even got to hear him make a little squeaking, crying noise. It was the cutest noise I think I've heard. 

My kids knew she was getting induced yesterday so the first thing they asked me today was if she had her baby, and if it was a boy or girl. I showed them the first picture I had and they all started cheering. A few of my students called me Aunt Courtney or Aunt Ewing all day. Another kid leaned over to Nichole (another second grade teacher) during library and asked with a huge smile if she had seen pictures of Miles yet. At the end of the day Rebecca sent another picture and I squealed a little and the entire class ran towards me wanting to see the new picture, and yes, they all sighed when they saw him because he is just so cute!

Welcome to the world Miles Bailey Krautner! I can't wait to hug and kiss you. (And continue to spoil you rotten.)

crying and pennies

So today kicked off my class' study of Black History Month. I always start it by playing the In/Out Game for the first half of the day, and then having a long discussion at the end of the day. In the In/Out Game, for half of the morning half of the kids are In's and treated awesomely. They basically have the run of the classroom, and I treat them like kings and queens. The Outs however have to go next door to get water, if an In needs to get water or go to the bathroom, or in line for something, they have to let the In go first. I don't ever call on the Out's, I tell them they aren't working hard enough, scowl at them every time I get, you get the idea. At recess the game stops, and we start back up afterwards, and then finally stop it right before lunch. When I told Rebecca about it the first year I did it she told me I was getting fired and I should start looking for a job.

At the end of the day we talked about how it felt to be and In and an Out, and how I treated them both times. Then we talk about why we did this experiment, and I always apologize for being so mean. The absolute worst is when the sweetest kids cry the entire time they're an Out. My first group of Out's I had 4 criers. One cried the entire time, and the other 3 were off and on. (By far the most I've ever had.) When one of the In's was asking me a question he leaned over and said, "No offense Ms. Ewing, but it's not very nice of you to not call on the Out's. I'm just saying." He then gave me a look like I hope I don't get in trouble for saying that. One sweet kid was trying to get an Out to tell them the answer so they could say it for them. Luckily all my kids got what we were doing, and hopefully none of them will go home and tell their parents I hate them.

We are also doing a service project where we collect pennies for an organization called Pennies for Peace. One of my kids said their mom wanted me to email her to tell her a little more about it, so I decided to email all of my parents. I wrote this great email telling them all about the book and how inspired we all were. It was a pretty awesome email if I do say so myself. So I get a reply email back from a mom pretty quickly saying "This made my day. Look at your subject line, I'm sure it was a mistake, but it's hilarious!" Of course I hadn't written "Pennies for Peace" like I had planned and had thought. Nope. I wrote "Penis for Peace." When I realized what I had written I could not stop laughing! I was on the verge of tears I was laughing so hard that I had emailed all of my parents this email. I was going to email all my parents the mistake, but I'm curious to see who else actually reads my emails I send them.

So that was my day. Crying and "Penis for Peace" emails.

valentine's day

One thing I always have my students do for Valentine's Day is write what they think love is. I tell them they can use their 5 senses, think about what love means to them, or explain love any way they want. I always get interesting things back...here are some of the best.

Love sounds like a riddle.

Love is a hand to destiny.

Love smells like shampoo.

Love tastes like steak and spaghetti in 2 courses.

Love smells like sword (I thought it said sour) fish and chocolate on 2 different days.

Love is a hug from you.

Love is flames.

Love is exploded cool.

I even had a frame made for me!

I totally made out on loot from the kids. I got 2 bouquets of flowers from students, about 15 pieces of candy, 6 cupcakes, and some chocolates that aren't in the picture. (I put it in the lounge so other people would eat it.)

I even got flowers from my valentine.

All in all it was a super fun Valentine's Day!

i can admit when i'm wrong

I will be the first to tell you Snuggies are stupid. Is it really that annoying to wear a blanket and have a cold arm for a few seconds to change the channel? If you're going to a sports event, why aren't you wearing a jacket if it's that cold outside? And if you really hate your arms being cold that badly, why can't you just wear your robe backwards?

So for my birthday the Heleniak's got me a Texas Snuggie. I opened it and started laughing so hard and then we all proceeded to make fun of it and how ridiculous they are. Obviously I put it on at their house and wore it while we watched American Idol. As I was leaving Claire asked if this was the best birthday present I got. Well I wore it the day after while I was doing some work, and I finally realized that Snuggies are pretty awesome. Now I would never have bought one for myself, let's be clear about that. But I am enjoying the one the Heleniak's bought for me. 

hellbound twins

Not long ago I explained why my friend Chris and I were Hellbound. Well, I was going through my old scrapbooks yesterday and I found the picture that doomed us.

wicked and weird

Wicked: an inch of snow giving AISD a snow day!

Weird: Girl Scout cookies left unopened underneath a car at Kerbey Lane. I almost took them for my pregnant sister, but they weren't the kind she likes.

This post title was inspired by a redonk song I learned about from Rebecca and Michael. Enjoy!

worst. day. ever.

OK, I get that saying today is the worst day ever is a little over dramatic, but after the day I had, I don't care. Today with the wind chill it was 7 when I woke up. I drove to school like normal and noticed as I got closer it was a lot darker outside than normal. Everything came together for me when I drove up to school and realized there was no power. So I walk into the school and there are already a few teachers standing in the dark (with a few emergency lights) talking about what the hell is going on. Turns out we have no power, and yet school will continue as normal. Portable people will have class in the cafeteria because their (our) portables are so freaking cold because the walls are paper thin. Awesome. I get to try to teach 20 bonkers kids in the cafeteria with at least 8 other classes going all the way to 4th grade.

When the announcements come on we decide to go to the classroom and pack up our backpacks with stuff and walk back to the cafeteria for warm up. We edit our sheets, check it, and power comes on. Great! We can go back to our classroom (even though our heater sucks and the room won't be warm for at least 2 hours). We get back there, and within 5 minutes the power is out again. So I'm annoyed and make my kids stay in there, and I tell them to bundle up because we aren't leaving. An hour and a half later we are all shivering so we go into the library this time with 2 other second grade classes. (Did I forget to mention they have to take a flashlight to go to the bathroom? Did I also forget to tell you I was wearing tights, jeans, heavy socks, Uggs, a long sleeved shirt, sweater, jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves and I was still cold all day? And yet school still wansn't cancelled? Just checking.)

The power continues to go off and on all day, and every time it's off longer than it's on. Because of this the heater isn't on long enough to warm the school up. Of course every time the lights go on or off my kids decide it's necessary to yell. Thanks. That's helping my headache and frustration level. At one point when this happened one of my kids, while writing and not to anyone in particular said, "UGH! This is the worst day ever!" My sentiments exactly kid.

Apparently Texas can't handle the extreme usage of power going on because of this arctic blast, and so they have enabled a state-wide rolling blackout. Of course, we were lucky enough at my school to have an entirely different power problem that no one was able to figure out. Who knows if we will even have power tomorrow. 

Now I can already see Rebecca and other Northerners rolling their eyes at this post thinking, Chicago had their first snow day in 12 years, get over it! I am also assuming Rebecca is thinking that she is pregnant, ready to pop, and is screwed if it happens (I hope they choose the sled route.) so I should stop complaining about my day. Well, this is Texas, and this is our typical winter. I just hope school is cancelled tomorrow. I don't this any of us want to see each other so soon.